Largest Hail Stone Ever in Missouri was Bigger than a Softball

Missouri has already been pounded by some large hail storms in 2024, but none have yet rivaled what fell nearly 20 years ago. It was a storm that dropped the largest hail ever recorded in the state featuring a mammoth size that dwarfed what you'd find on a softball field.

As recently as last year, Missouri was hit by baseball-sized hail and a recent storm destroyed the windows of hundreds of cars in the St. Louis area.

But, if you are wondering what the biggest hail stone every recorded in Missouri was, you need to travel back to May 24, 2004 when Linn County was hit by killer hail that measured 6 inches in diameter and 16 1/2 inches in circumference.

Compare that to a softball which measures only 11 inches in circumference and you begin to understand exactly how large that massive Missouri hail stone was.

We're beginning to enter the months of the year when the National Weather Service in St. Louis shows the largest hail falls in Missouri.

Many underestimate how dangerous hail really is. Even hail as "small" as a golf ball can kill if it hits the wrong place. The fact that Missouri is regularly seeing baseball-sized hail now is alarming and it makes me wonder exactly what storms have planned for us this year as meteorologists are warning Missouri could be stormier than normal.